Many shipping containers have been utilized for transporting cargo from one place to another, a typical example being the usual box trailers mounted on wheels and which are rented to persons desiring to tow them from one place to another for carrying cargo therein. Other shipping containers have been used aboard railway transport vehicles, aircraft, ocean going boats and other vehicles for use in transporting cargo; however, most of such containers have either been bulky to handle and return to the point of origin or have been expendable containers all of which is an expensive manner of shipping cargo. The usual box type trailers or van type trucks do not have collapsible containers but are provided with thick box-like structures which are very bulky and if transported to a point of origin or to a location for reuse, the bulk of the container is prohibitive in that only a small number may be transported on a railway flat car for example. Accordingly, prior art shipping containers have either been too bulky to transport in large numbers on a given carrier for the purpose of returning such containers to the point of origin or for reuse when not loaded and consequently, the economy of using shipping containers has suffered from the bulk of the containers when not loaded and when it is necessary to transport such containers without any payload therein. Consequently, many prior art containers have been designed so that they are expandable; however, this is a costly manner of shipping cargo.